Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

chavoux, philip,

without looking at the data, i suspect that "baal/ishah" as 
husband/wife, with or without the article, is not too common 
in BH, as compared with "ish/eshet", though it is standard 
nowadays. i might be wrong.

as to "baal" the deity, i suggest the following distinction:
"baal" relates to the deity name (parallel to kmosh, dagon etc), 
"ha-baal" relates to the whole associated cultural heritage 
and pantheon. but this article formation is singular and is 
not repeated with the other cults, except perhaps asherah?,
maybe attesting to their great popularity at the time and/or
indicating their specific canaanite origin.

nir cohen

>>> De: Chavoux Luyt <chavoux AT gmail.com>
Para: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Data: Mon, 6 Aug 2012 18:45:06 +0200
Assunto: Re: [b-hebrew] יהוה vs הבעל
Hi  Philip

Philip,
>

If I understand you right, your proposed meaning of ha-baal is the exact
opposite of the way the definite article is used on a proper noun in
Biblical Hebrew.  It seems you are saying that when "baal" has the definite
article, it is not a name, but "the husband".  In English that would be
true, but in Hebrew it is the opposite. Baal can be a word or a proper
name. To refer to the name, Baal, rather than the word baal, in Hebrew you
put the definite article on it. So Ha-Baal means Baal the idol (unless the
context might refer to a previously-mentioned husband).  Baal without the
definite article is usually the word baal, meaning husband, etc.